THE BANK TRAWL-LINE COD FISHERY. 159 



tute at the wharf. This year trawls were just coming into general use, and an unusually large 

 quantity of haddock were caught. The enterprise was, however, fairly successful. He paid his 

 substitute $90, and made $90 in addition as his share of the winter's work. The following year 

 trawls were used by every one, and haddock, which had formerly been as valuable as cod, were so 

 abundant that the company was nearly swamped. Their agreement with the fishermen was that 

 both cod and haddock should be paid for at the rate of $1.25 a hundred-weight. This year had- 

 dock brought only 37i cents a hundred-weight at Boston, and, though cod were worth $2.25, the 

 venture was a losing one, and the captain had to pay $90 back to the firm in addition to the $90 

 which he paid to his substitute. 



It was at this time that the second petition from the Swampscott people was brought up in 

 the Massachusetts legislature, and was referred to the committee of fisheries, of which Captain 

 Atwood was the chairman. The committee voted "that the petitioners should have leave to with 

 draw;" but the bill was brought up by the Hon. Caleb Cushing, of Newburyport, who made an 

 eloquent speech on the floor of the house in favor of the petition, stating that he had been told 

 that the custom of trawling was rapidly exterminating the haddock, and from present appearances 

 they would soon be as scarce as salmon, and that he was told that even at that time poor people 

 could not afford to eat them. When he got through, says the captain, most of the members were 

 apparently deeply impressed, and those that loved haddock evidently thought that they had eaten 

 their last one. Mr. Gushing closed by calliug upon the chairman of the committee on fisheries, 

 who, he understood, was a practical fisherman, to state his own experience in the matter. This was 

 Captain Atwood's first speech, but, though he felt somewhat diffident, he felt sure of his ground. 

 He rose and said that it was necessary for him to speak somewhat in detail, and began to recount 

 the history of the haddock in Massachusetts Bay. He told how in the days of his boyhood they 

 had been extremely scarce, so that not more than one haddock was taken to every three or four 

 hundred cod; how they had increased gradually in numbers until at the present time they were 

 swarming in the waters in the greatest abundance. The gentleman from Newburyport had stated 

 that they would soon be as scarce as salmon, and that poor people even then could not afford to 

 eat them, and had asked him for his practical experience in the matter. "I would state, Mr. 

 Chairman, that I am one of a company of five fishermen in Proviucetown who entered into 

 partnership for the purpose of buying all the fish which should be brought to the shore this 

 winter; that this very morning we received 4,000 pounds of haddock, for which we paid $1.25 

 a hundred, and which we were obliged to sell for 37 cents; not 37^ cents a pound, Mr. Chair- 

 man, but 37i cents for a hundred pounds; and if any of the members will take the trouble to walk 

 down by Commercial Wharf they may see women going back into the city with their arms full 

 of haddock, the small fish, which are called unmarketable, for which they had paid not more than 

 10 cents for all that they could carry. They might not be too plenty for the people, hut they are 

 too plenty for the dealer and too plenty for the fishermen." The speaker's time had now expired, 

 but. he was allowed by unanimous vote to continue his remarks; and at their close it was voted 

 "that the Swampscott petitioners have leave to withdraw." 



HISTORY OF TRAWLING IN THE VICINITY OP BATH, WISCASSET, AND BOOTH BAY DISTRICTS. 

 Mr. Daniel Cameron, of Southport, gives the following statements about the introduction of trawls 

 into this section: 



"The first ever known of trawling here was a report brought from Cape Ann of Peter Sinclair 

 using them on the schooner Anna as early as 1854 or 1855. He used them on the Cape shore and 

 Banks for cod and halibut, and was remarkably successful. In 1858 Booth Bay sent her first 

 trawler, the schooner Albatross, Captain Farmer, belonging to N. McFarland. She went to the 



